Alumni spotlight
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From board games to board rooms
“Engineering mindset” takes Brennan O’Yeung on a global entrepreneurial journey
Brennan O'Yeung’s love of board games started as a preschooler with Snakes and Ladders. In elementary school, he’d play Monopoly with his family and always wanted to be the banker.
“I was the one managing payments for everyone – when a property was bought or rent was owed, I had to give the correct change. I had to always keep my eye on the money,” says O’Yeung. The game not only kickstarted his math skills, he says, it also helped shape his “entrepreneurial journey.”
And what a trip he’s having.
While studying mechanical engineering at the Schulich School of Engineering, O’Yeung helped with a biomechanic research project in the Human Performance Lab looking at pedal force in cycling; received an NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award to study engineering sensors and printed circuits for electronics; co-authored a research paper about utilizing drones in firefighting; built robots for provincial engineering competitions; had a 15-month internship at an energy company; mentored younger students—all while coaching youth in his favourite sport, badminton. He was named a 2020 Stars of Alberta Volunteer Award for his efforts.
When we look at a problem in engineering, you really have to break it down into small pieces. That really helps with courses, capstone businesses and managing relationships. How do I put this all together and break it down into small manageable pieces, so I don't always have to scramble at the last minute.
Brennan O'Yeung BSc (Eng)'22 (Mechanical Engineering)
O’Yeung also found time to apply his love of games to a real-world problem by developing Escape with STEM, an award-winning non-profit that inspires Indigenous youth and other youth groups to learn more about STEM through puzzles and escape rooms.
After Schulich, O’Yeung spent a few months backpacking in Europe before embarking on yet another adventure, applying to join the inaugural cohort of TETR College of Business.
“It's a dream come true,” he says of the program which has students spend a semester each in Dubai, New Delhi, Singapore, Accra, New York, Rio de Janeiro and Milan. In every city, they meet with local investors and entrepreneurs, and build a business.
The “engineering mindset” he learned at Schulich is helping him navigate the inevitable challenges. “When we look at a problem in engineering, you really have to break it down into small pieces. That really helps with courses, capstone businesses and managing relationships. How do I put this all together and break it down into small manageable pieces, so I don't always have to scramble at the last minute.”
O’Yeung is honing his time management and prioritizing skills to “embrace the journey” rather than focus only on grades. Thinking back to Schulich, he says joining clubs and hanging out with friends helped shape his university experience. “You're not going to remember tests and grades. You're going to remember the time you threw a pie in your friend's face or the time when you built a robot, and it got first place at a competition,” he says.
After traveling the world of business with TETR, O’Yeung would like to settle in Europe and develop an entrepreneurial venture or work as a producer in the game development industry. “That’s something I would love to be a part of,” he says. “Like a game, everybody goes through their ups and downs in life. Nothing's always smooth sailing, but at the end of the day, part of the game is that you join others and try to win together.”